Exploring Online Safely March 27, 2019 My roles as a Year 5 teacher and leader of STEM, as well as being the parent of two children, ages 8 and 12, has led me to think quite a lot about E-Safety. Digital media provides opportunities for... Exploring Online Safely Compare The Market for Schools December 19, 2018 Last week, the DfE Compare School Performance site was updated, and the summary page for Coleridge Primary School describes some aspects of our performance as Average. I do not wish to downplay the... Compare The Market for Schools Why I Love Teaching In The Early Years November 12, 2018 I’ve been asked on numerous occasions why I love teaching in the Early Years; what makes it special? I’m not sure people expect, or want, a lengthy response or a detailed anecdote about rearr... Why I Love Teaching In The Early Years Farewell Year 6 July 20, 2018 Over the last couple of weeks, members of the governing body and myself have been evaluating where we are as a school and where we want to try and go in the next 5 years. As part of this evaluation we... Farewell Year 6 Focus On Emotional Wellbeing June 27, 2018 Way back in the last millennium when I trained to be a teacher, it was all about teaching children the three Rs: reading, writing, arithmetic. Focus On Emotional Wellbeing Examining The Qualities That Matter May 18, 2018 For the past few months, our children in Year 6 have been preparing for SATs. These end of year assessments test children’s abilities in arithmetic, mathematical reasoning, spelling, reading comprehen... Examining The Qualities That Matter Emotional Intelligence And Fantastic Mr Fox December 6, 2017 On a recent tour, showing prospective parents around the school, I was asked what I felt Coleridge’s greatest strength was. I answered, that while we have high expectations for our children academical... Emotional Intelligence And Fantastic Mr Fox What, How And Why? September 12, 2017 Working in education is one of the most rewarding jobs you could wish for, especially when you see the positive impact that your work is having on children and families. However, juggling all... What, How And Why? Developing Teachers, and Teaching June 9, 2017 Today we held internal interviews for a new middle leadership role. These positions don’t come up very often; when they do I am always impressed with the number of applicants and the aspirations of ou... Developing Teachers, and Teaching An Open Letter To Theresa May March 8, 2017 Dear Prime Minister, I woke this morning to the news that you have decided to invest £320 million in the creation of another 140 new free schools – this on top of the 500 you have already pledged t... An Open Letter To Theresa May Campaign For Fair Funding January 19, 2017 On Tuesday 17th January, I attended a meeting at Rhodes Avenue Primary school. The meeting was organised by a group of local parents who have joined together to campaign against the cuts that are faci... Campaign For Fair Funding Social Media November 16, 2016 The run up to the American election and the subsequent victory for Donald Trump have left many people feeling astonished and dumb founded - myself included. Democracy and freedom of speech are importa... Social Media The Funding Challenge October 7, 2016 It is no secret that many state schools - ourselves included - are in financial difficulty. Shrinking budgets and rising costs threaten to impact upon what schools are able to offer their students. Co... The Funding Challenge The EU and Community July 4, 2016 It has been an unforgettable couple of weeks, and regardless of your political views you cannot escape hearing about, reading or participating in a discussion on the EU Referendum. It has been stagger... The EU and Community Standardised Testing vs. Creative Thinking June 10, 2016 Over the last term, Year 6 and Year 2 have been sitting their SATs (Statutory Assessment Tests), and I could not have been prouder of the way in which they approached them. The children were calm and ... Standardised Testing vs. Creative Thinking Driving Change May 9, 2016 Before taking the job as head teacher, I remember talking to my predecessor, Mrs Boffey, about the importance of ‘staying ahead of the game’. However, in the current political climate this is becoming... Driving Change A return to fitness March 15, 2016 Thank you to you all who have welcomed me back to school and shown concern for my health over the last couple of months. Having something go wrong with your body, unexpectedly, is something that ca... A return to fitness Home Learning December 7, 2015 ‘Home learning’ or ‘homework’ is an issue that is difficult for a school to come up with a definitive solution which satisfies all parents’ point of view. This sentiment was reflected in the recent su... Home Learning Welcome to our new website! November 4, 2015 It doesn’t seem that long ago when, as a newly qualified teacher, the blackboard was the central feature of my classroom. There wasn’t a day when I didn’t come home from school with chalk on my clothe... Welcome to our new website! Black History Month October 6, 2015 This weekend, I was reading an article written by Benjamin Zephaniah. In it, he argued that, despite feelings that society has progressed towards greater racial equality, in actual fact, we have not c... Black History Month Sad News September 9, 2015 It saddens me to start my first blog of the new academic year with some devastating news I received over the summer. The day after we said goodbye to Bill our Network manager we learned about a tragic... Sad News The end of a fantastic year! July 15, 2015 The end of term always comes around quickly and this term has been no different. For the school it has been a busy but exceptional year and the school has gone from strength to strength. One of the... The end of a fantastic year! Transitional Times June 5, 2015 During the holiday, I watched the state opening of Parliament. Though I have always been interested in the colour, tradition and ceremony of the event, on this occasion I paid more careful attention, ... Transitional Times The Ofsted Inspection April 14, 2015 The notion of an ‘outsider’ coming into your school to make a judgement about the ethos and learning is a daunting experience. One can only hope that whoever the inspectors are and whatever background... The Ofsted Inspection Time to Reflect March 10, 2015 At times when learning something new, we will all have faced great challenges. While learning can be fun, if it is something that needs that extra focus and needs to be practised over and over before ... Time to Reflect The Things That Matter January 27, 2015 A problem with the role of Headteacher is that it is all too easy to lose sight of the things that really matter in a school. One can get bogged down in all the paper work, meetings and emails that ne... The Things That Matter Making a Difference December 19, 2014 I stumbled across a story on the internet yesterday which struck a chord with me, and which I thought I would share. An old man was walking on the beach one morning after a storm. In the distance, ... Making a Difference
